Covid-19 discussion thread

[AntsyVee]

Juvenal, Chaucer, Defoe, Swift, Twain, Orwell…. How on earth did these blokes get by without a little face to tell their readers they were making a point by the use of irony, sarcasm and satire? Ah yes, the original manuscripts did have them after all – exquisitely drawn in the margin as illuminated icons with a little arrow indicating where they were applicable – but the later copies and print runs did not because they were too expensive….


No, I don’t know you Ms Vee – I’ve never met you and it’s very unlikely I ever shall – but that doesn’t prevent me from reading your musings and being able to decipher when you’re being facetious, silly or serious. To use one of your Americanisms, those little faces and animations are a form of ‘dumbing down’ – communication simplified to the lowest common denominator.

Do you want to get to know me better? I promise not to use emojis.

I guess for me the question is: are we “dumbing-down” vernacular or creating a new one through online language? Online dialogue doesn’t usually have the same intent as literature.

[Lencoboy]

To help put the UK's Corona crisis into perspective, take a look at this.

bbc.co.uk/news/health-53656852

[Pamplemousse]

Unfortunately that only serves to make me think HMG is leaning on the BBC again. Some of it reads like Trump-speak.

"Nice little public service broadcaster you've got here. Be a shame if anything happened to it."

[Lencoboy]

Unfortunately that only serves to make me think HMG is leaning on the BBC again. Some of it reads like Trump-speak.

"Nice little public service broadcaster you've got here. Be a shame if anything happened to it."

So it's all out-and-out lies then?

We might just as well say that CV is going from bad to even worse in this country right now then!!

Seems like I can't win.

[fishman65]

Surely writing can be informative, interesting, descriptive, emotional… even when it’s for t’internet? Does everything have to be plasticised, homogenised, chucked together then chucked away nowadays?

Oh I completely agree writing can be all of those things, much like writers can be pretentious, patronising, supercilious, condescending and boring. Look, no emoji.

[pulisa]

Can't they just...but we're not allowed to say that and if we do it's because we're plebs unable to appreciate brilliance.

[KK77]

Oh I completely agree writing can be all of those things, much like writers can be pretentious, patronising, supercilious, condescending and boring. Look, no emoji.

You been reading the OED again, old kipper?

[AntsyVee]

You been reading the OED again, old kipper?

Maybe it was "word-a-day" toilet paper...like Homer Simpson!

[KK77]

Maybe it was "word-a-day" toilet paper...like Homer Simpson!

Why, of course you can have an old grandpa vid, Vee!

[MyNameIsTerry]

So it's all out-and-out lies then?

We might just as well say that CV is going from bad to even worse in this country right now then!!

Seems like I can't win.

Isn't that based on the Oxford evidence based medicine prof?

I would have thought increased testing leads to increased cases. The important number is the % rates now to before testing increased (some caveat needed for targeted testing being less a scattergun approach). Trump himself alluded to this by wanting to reduce testing to reduce positive cases, doing an ostrich impression.